How Gratitude Makes Me Recognize Stress, and Not Act On It

Personal Letter From the Founder of All The Way In

Day by day, as I rediscover myself and my abilities, the meaning that lies deep within me, is uncovered. To accept that growing is the fundamental pillar stone of life itself, is the greatest meaning I have ever found.

When you start to strive for personal growth rather than perfection, when you start to create a positive mind-set rather than ignoring your ruminating brain, you will find gratitude, balance and peace.

When you begin to recognize your thought pattern, connect with your emotions and feel empowered to take control of it, you will turn into a confident, powerful and mindful human being. When body, mind and heart is connected, this will lead you to your true meaning.

Gratitude is no cure-all, but it is a massively underutilized tool for improving life-satisfaction and happiness.

Without having the ability to be grateful and appreciate both the hardship as well as the good times, comes a very contagious disease: Stress. To me, understanding and having knowledge about the impact stress can have on me as well as people I’m surrounded by, is meaningful. With knowledge, I can recognize stress in my life and not act on it, nor get confused by it. Just be grateful that the stress challenges me.

You see, stress does not work in a silo. It is highly contagious, and it will eventually impact the people around the one who’s stressed.

There’s four main symptoms of stress: No verbal filter, mistakes, bad food decisions and sensitivity.

STRESS SYMPTOM #1: NO VERBAL FILTER

Firstly, stress makes a person have no verbal filter. Venting under stress can cause confusion because saying the wrong thing at the wrong time can result in someone else being hurt.

STRESS SYMPTOM #2: MISTAKES

Secondly, people under a lot of stress often make more mistakes. When we become stressed, our brain goes into “fight and flight” mode, and our decisions become more rash as the more logical part of our brain is shut down. The mistakes that can be made under stress can vary from mistakes at work, to on the road, to your home life and relationships.

STRESS SYMPTOM #3: BAD FOOD DECISIONS

Furthermore, stress has the most severe effect on those you are closest to. In a recent study, it was found that childhood obesity is linked to parental stress. Parents who have higher stress levels tend to make poorer shopping a nutrition decisions. Stressed parents also spend less time with their children.

STRESS SYMPTOM 4: SENSITIVITY

Last but not least, stress breaks down intimate relationships. In fact, relationships exposed to high amounts of stress for a long period of time are almost guaranteed to fail. When you are stressed, your perception of everything is heightened and you become more sensitive – which only causes more conflict and communication issues. Not knowing how to help you, your partner is left feeling disconnected and hopeless, threatening their mental state as well.

To conclude, I find it meaningful and necessary to pay attention to when, how and why the stress occurs and be mindful of it so that I can find gratitude and eventually take care of myself and others around me in a better way.